5OS07 Wellbeing at Work introduces workplace well-being and explains why it matters. It explores the relationship between work, health, and well-being, and looks at how organisations can manage well-being in practice and connect it to people management and wider organisational strategy. The unit also covers the key parts of well-being programmes, the stakeholders involved, organisational responsibilities, and the benefits of effective well-being management for both employees and employers.
Task 1: Understanding Wellbeing in the Workplace
AC 1.1 Evaluate two key ‘wellbeing’ theories, including how they can be applied to current issues of wellbeing in the workplace.
Theory 1: The PERMA Model (Seligman)
Seligman’s (2024) PERMA model, originating from positive psychology, identifies five essential elements of human flourishing: Positive Emotions (experiencing joy, gratitude, and contentment), Engagement (being fully absorbed in meaningful activities), Relationships (having supportive, authentic connections), Meaning (contributing to something greater than oneself), and Accomplishment (achieving goals and experiencing mastery). The model proposes that wellbeing is not merely the absence of illness but the active presence of these five elements.
Applied to current workplace issues, PERMA provides a comprehensive framework for addressing the post-pandemic wellbeing crisis. The CIPD (2024a) reports that stress-related absence has reached its highest level in over a decade, with workload, poor management, and lack of purpose cited as primary drivers. PERMA reframes wellbeing strategy from deficit-based interventions, such as reactive employee assistance programmes, to proactive flourishing-focused approaches. Organisations can enhance Positive Emotions through recognition and appreciation cultures, Engagement through job design that provides autonomy and challenge, Relationships through team-building and inclusive management, Meaning through connecting individual roles to organisational purpose, and Accomplishment through clear goals and development pathways. The model’s strength is its holistic, evidence-based approach; its limitation is that it may underemphasise systemic organisational factors such as workload and job insecurity that constrain individual flourishing regardless of personal resources.
Theory 2: The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model (Bakker and Demerouti)
The JD-R model (Bakker and Demerouti, cited in Dewe and Cooper, 2024) proposes that employee wellbeing is determined by the balance between job demands, the physical, psychological, and organisational aspects of work that require sustained effort, and job resources, the aspects that help achieve goals, reduce demands, and stimulate growth. When demands consistently exceed resources, employees experience strain, burnout, and health deterioration through a health impairment pathway. When resources are sufficient, employees experience engagement, motivation, and positive outcomes through a motivational pathway.